Tiny Avengers
by FandomlyYours
Summary: Something's gone wrong and all the Avengers have been turned into small children. Pepper is the only one who can handle them, but can she take the pressure? Will be PepperXTony and NatashaXClint. Gets more angsty at the end. Movieverse. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

"Miss. Potts."

Pepper shot to her feet. "What'sthematterisTonyalright? Why isn't he home yet? Has somebody called?" Her words slurred together as worry took priority over legibility.

"Miss. Potts, Director Fury is on the phone."

Pepper gulped. Fury only ever called in dire emergencies.

"I'm sure everything is fine," soothed JARVIS in his calm voice.

Pepper swallowed, battling the panic that was rising within her. "Yes, uhm... Answer the call. Hello, Director Fury," she added as JARVIS put her on the line with the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Is everything alright?"

"Miss. Potts," Fury acknowledged. "I'm afraid we're going to need you to come in."

"Please relax, Miss. Potts. I'm sure they will not require you to perform any dangerous tasks."

"It's not that, Jarvis, I... I'm worried they have bad news." Pepper fretted as she drove to headquarters. She pulled up, and tensed as she saw that Fury was waiting for her with a grim expression on his face. "Oh, no."

"Miss. Potts."

"Pepper," Pepper corrected.

"Pepper. There's been an incident."

"Is Tony okay?"

"Well... Define okay. He's alive, if that's what you mean."

"Has he been harmed?"

"He's- he's not injured." Fury looked uncomfortable.

Pepper narrowed her eyes and pushed past Fury.

"I should warn you," Fury hurried after her. "It may come as a bit of a shock. However, we will require your assistance..." He trailed off as Pepper stopped in front of a large silver door.

Coming into such an area as this, one should be prepared for many things. Pepper knew this, and she had braced herself for explosions, mutations, torture and things that she didn't particularly want to think about. The one thing she didn't expect was-

"WAAAAAAAAH!"

Crying?

Pepper pushed the door open.

"Oh. My. God."

Fury stood behind her, scowling resignedly.

Pepper turned to look at him. "Tiny Avengers?"

Fury nodded grimly. "Tiny Avengers."

"How did this even- Woahh!" Pepper's disbelieving question was cut off as she was hit by what appeared to be a small cannonball.

"PEPPER!"

Or a miniature Tony Stark.

Followed by the rest of the team.

"Director, what-" Pepper was cut off again as she attempted to fend off mini-Tony, who was pulling her hair, mini-Steve, who was clinging to her leg, mini-Natasha, who was hanging off her arm, mini-Clint, who was poking her shoulder, mini-Bruce, who was on her other leg, and mini-Thor, who was thumping on her back.

Fury shrugged. "I said there had been an incident."

"I didn't even know they were all here. Wasn't Thor on, like, another planet?"

"We called them in. Just in case. Training."

"Tony did not tell me about this." She glared at mini-Tony, who grinned.

"On orders."

"Of course. What do you want me to do with them?"

"We were hoping that you would take care of them while we search for a solution." Fury looked at her hopefully.

"I can't take care of six- ow! Six evil children!" Pepper cried as Clint poked her in the eye.

"You do a good job babysitting the adult Tony Stark."

Pepper paused. "I suppose so." She glared at Fury. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Thank you, Pepper. Agents will be in to check on you periodically."

"Pepper?" Tony tugged on her pant leg. "Pepper, I'm hungry."

"Just a minute, Tony," Pepper called over her shoulder. "I'm slightly busy." An understatement, she thought, as she tried to stop Steve from killing Clint. In all honesty she thought that Clint deserved it after tearing apart Steve's stuffed shield, but she pulled the two apart just the same, offering Steve a cookie and Clint a firm glare.

"PEPPER!" Tony wailed.

"Okay, okay! Good God, you're no better as a child, are you?" Pepper mumbled exasperatedly.

Tony sniffled, looking up at her with big, sad eyes, and Pepper's heart melted.

"What do you all want for lunch?" she asked, wincing inwardly as she recognized her mistake.

"Cookies!" shouted Steve, and Bruce nodded his head vigorously.

"Sandwich," said Natasha quietly in her little girl voice.

"COFFEE!" roared Thor, to Pepper's confusion.

"Hot dogs?" requested Clint, a mischievous glint in his eye. Pepper didn't particularly want to know what he was planning, but the way he was gripping his toy bow made her think that it would mean that she'd have to spend lots of time cleaning hot dogs off walls.

"Pizza," stated Tony decidedly, and Pepper was secretly glad that he hadn't requested caviar or something equally outrageous.

"Um, okay... No cookies," Pepper said firmly, to disappointed groans. "Not for lunch. Maybe afterwards, if you're good. No hot dogs, either. And definitely no coffee. Sandwiches would be good, Natasha, thank you for that. Pizza..." she glanced at Tony. "Maybe for dinner. No tantrums!" she added hastily as Tony began to pout.

Steve toddled up to her, snuffling. "Shield?" he asked quietly, holding up the tattered remains of his stuffed shield. For the second time that day, Pepper's heart melted.

"I'll try and fix your shield," she promised, and Steve lit up.

"Miss. Potts?"

"Pepper," corrected Pepper automatically. She glanced up. "Good afternoon, Agent Hill. Can I help you?"

The agent smiled. "If I'm calling you Pepper, then call me Maria. I'm just here to check up. It looks like things are going well," she added, grinning as she spotted the tea party Pepper was having with Natasha. "You're good with children."

Pepper went pink. "Not really. I had a bit of practice with- hey, ow!" She pulled the suction-cup arrow off her temple and turned around to see Clint with an evil grin on his face.

"Gotcha," he said proudly.

Pepper opened her mouth to berate him, but she was too late. Natasha got up and punched Clint on the arm- not hard, but not particularly gently, either. Clint lost his balance and toppled over, glaring at Natasha.

"No arrow," Natasha ordered. "No arrow, no shoot Pepper." She grabbed the bow and snapped it.

"Uh oh," muttered Pepper.

Clint looked on the verge of tears. "Bow," he mumbled softly, looking sad and angry. Natasha looked slightly guilty, but her expression turned to alarm as Clint got up and jabbed her in the stomach. She squealed.

"No!" she squeaked, escaping on stumpy legs. "No tickle. Not fair, Clint."

"Bow," insisted Clint firmly. "You break bow. Yes tickle."

"Oh, damn," breathed Pepper. She rushed after the pair and tackled Clint so that he stumbled- not hard, just enough to make him stop. She gripped the tiny archer before he could move further, and gritted her teeth as he squirmed in her grip. She flinched as Natasha came back and started hitting him.

Maria winced as she saw Pepper wrestling with a small boy and a violent little girl. "Do you want some help?" she called hesitantly.

"I'm good! I'm fine! You can go, if you want," panted Pepper, offering a smile. "You don't have to stick with me and this group of annoying children." She glared at her charges.

Maria chuckled. "I'll let Fury know that you're doing a wonderful job. Good luck, Pepper."

"Thanks! Natasha, no hitting. You've been so good all afternoon. I don't want to send you to the naughty corner."

The tiny agent stopped. "Naughty corner? But no! I punish Clint for shooting you. And tickle."

"That's very nice of you, Natasha, but violence is never- uh, not the answer." At least not this time, Pepper thought to herself, smirking as she remembered that the child was a master assassin.

Natasha sniffed. "Okay. Sorry, Pepper. Sorry Clint," she added grumpily.

Clint stuck out his tongue playfully before standing up. He stuck out one pudgy hand, and Natasha took it. He started to shake, but Natasha had other ideas. She pulled him into a hug. Clint looked so surprised that Pepper had to try really hard not to laugh, but he patted her back awkwardly. Pepper cocked her head, enjoying the sweet moment. A sudden wolf whistle made her cringe.

"Clint and Natasha, sitting in a tree!" Tony paused, unsure of the next part. " G! Ahh!" squeaked Tony as the pair featuring in his song launched themselves at him, and he disappeared under a pile of squirming, punching, junior assassins.

Pepper was tempted to leave him there to teach him a lesson, but grudgingly accepted her role as babysitter. Sighing, she went to pull them apart.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a gorgeous evening in New York. The air was clear and warm and the city was covered in spectacular lights.

Too bad that Pepper couldn't appreciate it.

Feeding a bunch of children is hard. Feeding a bunch of superhuman children is harder.

Clint and Natasha weren't wreaking as much havoc as Pepper had feared they might, but they had smeared pizza sauce all over their faces in fake battle scars. Tony was scarfing one piece of pizza down after the other, and Pepper was worried that he'd give himself bellyache. Steve was stabbing at his pizza, whispering, "Die! Die!"

Pepper wasn't sure what to make of that.

Bruce was cutting his pizza into careful shapes. Pepper wasn't sure what they were, but they resembled the odd diagrams that Tony would draw when he was working on some sort of science-y thing. Whatever they were, Bruce was working pretty hard on them, but she didn't think he'd actually eaten much if the random bits of pizza on his lap were anything to go by.

Thor was eating even faster than Tony, and he had just finished his share.

"Thor, put the pizza crust down." Pepper absent-mindedly grabbed the crust from the raised hand of the chubby God of Thunder.

"But I like it!" objected Thor.

"_We_ don't crash things on the floor if we like 'em!" said Tony, with an air of superiority, which he had managed to keep despite being about three years old.

Thor looked at his feet, looking embarrassed.

"Idiot," muttered Tony under his breath, and Pepper groaned inwardly.

Thor gave a mighty squeak (anticlimactic, thought Pepper) and swung his rubber hammer into Tony. The little genius went flying into the opposite wall. He glared at Thor and stood up.

Pepper tensed.

Tony walked back and sat down at the table.

Pepper's jaw dropped.

However, his intent became clear as he turned to Steve. "Boost?"

Steve nodded okay and the two stood up. Tony ran up to Steve and bounced on his newly-repaired plush shield. As he soared up to the ceiling, one small hand shot out to grab the side of a shelf. He wriggled along the side of the shelf and managed to close a hand around the handle of a red plastic suitcase.

"Oh no. Oh no. Oh no." muttered Pepper. "This is bad, this is very bad, this is EXTREMELY bad..."

Tony topped off the shelf, case in hand. He put a foot on it and the rest of the team watched in interest (and trepidation, in Pepper's case) as a plastic suit folded around him, a blue light spluttering to life in the centre of his chest and in his eyes.

Pepper wondered absurdly if the arc reactor was made of plastic too, before recognising that there were greater problems at hand (and also that the reactor wouldn't work if it was plastic).

"C'mon then, Bob the Builder, whatcha got?" Tony's amplified voice made him sound much more like his usual self.

Thor rushed at him, his speed so disproportionate to his size that Pepper half expected him to trip and fall. Before she could move, Thor had reached the miniature Iron Man and had delivered a mighty WHACK!

Pepper stood, but Natasha pulled her back down. "No," she said seriously. "Pepper no..." she paused, looking frustrated, trying to remember the words from her adult vocabulary. "Intervene!" she said finally, looking triumphant. "Pepper no intervene. Could get messy, with big hammer and scary suit. Pepper not trained for."

Pepper sighed. "I guess so, but what else can I do?"

Clint grinned wickedly. "We help?" And before Pepper could say anything, he had walked over to Bruce and sliced his careful pizza shapes in half.

Pepper gasped.

Bruce looked up, shocked. His eyes welled with tears, and he sniffled. "Why cut?" he asked quietly.

Clint shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. "Hulk?" he suggested.

Bruce looked startled. His eyes started to burn and his fists clenched. "You want Hulk?" he growled. "You get Hulk!"

Natasha ran forward and pushed Clint back towards Pepper, sending the two stumbling back. Natasha stood in front of Bruce, hands on hips. "Sorry Bruce!" she chirped. "We help you put funny shapes back together later." She gestured at the shapes. "But Thor and Tony fight." She pointed.

Bruce was squirming, and Pepper noted with horror that he was turning green. "Go!" he yelped at Natasha, sounding strangled. He shoved the young girl towards Pepper and Clint before turning away. His clothes ripped, and his muscles grew larger... And larger...

The first thing that Pepper noticed was that he was much smaller than the normal Hulk. He was bigger than Bruce, by a great deal, but he was even smaller than she was.

"Bruce?" said Natasha tentatively. Clint stepped discreetly in front of her, just a bit, his arm extended ever-so-slightly in front of her, as if to shield her from the thing that he knew she feared. "Bruce, you help stop Tony and Thor?" Natasha asked in a small voice.

The Hulk turned to look at the three of them, his eyes filled with fury and... sorrow? He growled and began to advance.

Pepper yanked Steve over to her and gently pulled on Clint and Natasha, willing them to move backwards. Instead, Clint, being the brave, foolish little bugger that he was, charged.

Natasha screamed.

Clint whipped out his bow, which Pepper had fixed using super glue, and shot a couple of arrows into the Hulk's face. One hit him in the eye. Momentarily blinded, the Hulk paused and howled in discomfort, clawing at his face. Natasha took the opportunity to take a running leap onto his head, pulling out her pop gun. Steve entered the fray as well, brandishing the shield and yelling unintelligibly.

Pepper looked around desperately. There had to be some sort of button, something to call the S.H.I.E.L.D agents in for help...

A yell got her attention and she snapped around. Evidently, Thor and Tony has just caught sight of the Hulk, seeing as he had just stumbled into the space where they'd been fighting. The two looked at each other, and in an instant, had set their differences aside and jumped into the fight.

The Hulk, enraged at having two new competitors, roared and swept his arm in Tony's direction, sending him flying. The tiny armour landed in a heap, and Pepper shrieked. She started forward, but a voice shouted from the pile of armour, "NO! Pepper stay back!"

She stopped, reassured that he was okay. She looked back into the fray, and her sense of relief died.

There were scratches all over Natasha's face, and they didn't look like tomato sauce. Clint was fast running out of arrows, and he was scrambling to pick them up where they fell. Thor was wrapped around the Hulk's neck, but seeing as Mjolnir was a toy now, he had lost his 'only he who is worthy shall hold this hammer' advantage. The hammer was also not magic anymore, meaning that he had to fetch it whenever he lost it. Steve was being repeatedly squashed as he held his shield up to protect himself, only to rediscover that is was no longer vibranium and offered about as much protection as a pillow- which, in essentials, was what it was.

Pepper inhaled sharply, squinched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth at the pure stupidity of what she was about to do. "Bruce!" she called loudly.

The room went silent.

Pepper saw Natasha mouthing at her in fear. Tony had also sat up, and was staring at her, horrified.

"Bruce," Pepper began, and then stopped. What did you say to an enormous green rage monster who was rampaging around a nursery? "Stop it." she finished lamely.

The Hulk paused, possibly at the utter dumbness of her statement.

Pepper waited.

The Hulk charged.

And then everything happened at once.

"PEPPER!" screamed Tony, and he blasted straight at the Hulk, forgetting about whatever damage he may have sustained. He barrelled into the creature, sending them both flying backwards- straight into the rest of the group. Natasha fired round after round from her pop gun, aiming at the Hulk's face. Clint shot every arrow he could find, and then every arrow he couldn't find (Steve fetched them for him, finally admitting that his shield wasn't of much use). Thor bounded onto the Hulk's head, smashing with his hammer over and over. The Hulk bellowed, trying to scratch off his puny opponents. But they didn't let up.

"Bruce!" shouted Steve. "Bruce, stop it! Don't keep fighting us. Please Brucie?"

"Please?" echoed Tony, looking battered.

"Please," sniffed Natasha, and Clint nodded.

Thor said nothing, but looked down at the Hulk imploringly.

The Hulk paused again, looking a little confused, and then shocked, and then remorseful. He shrank quickly, and became his normal self again- albeit without clothes. Natasha made a face and turned away.

"I'm sorry!" Bruce squeaked, as Pepper fetched him some clothes. "I'm really sorry!"

Natasha approached him tentatively and gave him a hug. Clint looked at him jealously for a moment before remembering himself and coughing. "Sorry for provoking," he mumbled.

"It's okay," said Bruce uncertainly. "I guess."

"At least no more fight," offered Steve.

Tony and Thor looked guiltily at each other.

"Sorry," muttered Tony, looking slightly sullen.

"Sorry, friends," mumbled Thor abashedly.

There was a wet plop behind them and everybody looked around to see that one of Bruce's mutilated pizza shapes had fallen to the floor.

A tear slid down Bruce's cheek. "Molecule," he said sadly.

Clint looked at the floor.

Pepper squatted down and looked Clint straight in the eye. "Anything to say, Clint?" she asked firmly.

"Msry," he mumbled.

"What was that?" she insisted.

"I'M SORRY," he said, much louder. He looked up at Bruce. "Really sorry. I help you put back?"

Bruce managed a small smile. "Okie dokie."

Just as they began to walk back to the table, the door banged open, and Fury stood in the door. He was holding a rather unexpected visitor. A very small one.


	3. Chapter 3

"Absolutely not."

Fury looked desperately at her, the struggling baby Loki in his arms. "Pepper, we don't have a choice. We believe that he is involved in this... situation. He's refused to tell us anything and we need to know. In order for him to open up, he has to relax and learn to trust us."

"He's a _supervillain_!"

"I understand that, but he's been tested and is not dangerous to you in his current state."

"And the other children?"

"They can handle him." Fury smiled.

Pepper glared at him. "Where did you even find him?"

Fury shrugged. "Evidently he snuck here with Thor. It's our guess (a pretty good one, I'd say) that he's responsible for this." Fury nodded towards the young team of superheroes. "Or at least, directly involved."

The two were distracted as Loki finally struggled out of Fury's grip and plopped onto the floor, only to be squished by his enthusiastic brother.

"Loki!" Thor shrieked, hugging him.

Fury looked at Pepper amusedly. "Good luck getting him out now. You have to take care of him, like it or not."

Pepper sighed exaggeratedly. "You owe me big time, Fury."

Fury looked smug. "I suppose I do. Good luck." He exited the room, his long black coat swinging behind him.

Pepper bit her lip and looked down. Loki wriggled out of Thor's grip and stalked off, but not before throwing a condescending look at his brother. Thor wilted for a moment but immediately got his bounce back and started following Loki, jabbering unintelligibly.

The rest of the team was apparently still shocked, because none of them had moved.

Then Tony, still in his suit, flipped his helmet on and pointed one hand at Loki.

Loki froze.

Thor glared at Tony. "Stop. My brother!"

Tony looked at Thor, and then at Steve. Steve gave a noncommittal jerk of his head, but Natasha grabbed Tony's arm with her stubby fingers and shook her head firmly. "Violence not answer," she said, and Pepper grinned.

Tony sighed exasperatedly, sounding rather like Pepper had earlier, and lowered his arm, but not before sending Loki a warning stare. Loki turned to glare at the wall, and Pepper noted that he was rather grouchy for a two year old. Thor resumed his jabbering. Apparently unable to take it anymore, Loki snapped his fingers and a pit appeared where Thor was standing. With a surprised squeak, Thor dropped.

Pepper and the Avengers gasped. Bruce and Steve ran to check on Thor while Tony sent Pepper a 'you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me-with-this-guy' look. Pepper shrugged at him and walked apprehensively over to the pit, afraid of what she would find. To her relief, Loki's magic seemed to be limited since he was so young and the pit was about as deep as Thor was tall. He looked up at them sulkily, unhurt, but unable to get out. Bruce and Steve each reached in, grabbed an arm and pulled the God of Thunder out of the pit.

Meanwhile, Loki had stormed off again.

Thor had apparently learned to keep his distance and sent a woeful look in Loki's direction before plopping himself onto the floor and staring sadly at the carpet.

The rest of the team crowded around him, making comforting toddler noises, which was uncharacteristically kind for most of them. Pepper glanced at them for a moment, smiling at the sweet scene.

Then she remembered that she still had to talk to a grouchy God of Mischief, and her smile evaporated.

She sighed and raised her face to the ceiling, covering her eyes with her hands. Bracing herself, she walked up to the tiny Loki.

"Hey there, Loki!" Her attempt to sound jaunty died in her throat as Loki looked up at her disdainfully.

He burbled at her with a scowl, following up with a, "Hmmpfa."

Pepper was starting to wonder if he could talk at all.

"You alright there, buddy? You hungry?" _Please talk_, she thought. Somehow, she had a hunch that it would be very hard to get him to reveal secrets if he couldn't communicate.

He looked at her. "No." His attempt to sound rebellious and surly was counteracted by the large rumble from his stomach.

Pepper stifled a grin. "You sure?"

Loki looked at her, and his facade began to crumble a tiny bit. "N-no."

Pepper smiled kindly at him, her heart starting to warm. "How about pizza?"

He scrunched up his tiny nose. "Midgard food."

Forcing herself to smile apologetically, she said tightly, "Yes, I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "Okay."

Progress, she thought, as she went to get the pizza.

"Okay, guys, bedtime!" Pepper clapped her hands, not bothering to hide how ecstatic she was.

"No!" protested six voices. Loki merely looked at her disdainfully... Again. Although admittedly, with less contempt than before.

"C'mon, guys, we've had a big day and we're all very, very tired." _Or at least I am_, she thought.

"I'm not!" piped up Tony.

"Neither!" shouted Clint.

Natasha poked himin the arm, none too softly. "Pepper tired," she said wisely. "Pepper need rest."

Steve nodded. "Natasha right," he agreed grudgingly. "We're annoying."

Pepper chuckled.

"Not tired!" Thor objected.

Bruce threw a puzzle piece at him. "Pepper tired!" he echoed. "We go to sleep now."

Thor sighed. "Loki?" he asked tentatively, and all six of them turned to his brother.

Loki looked at them. "'Kay," he said with a shrug.

Pepper sighed in relief. They might have been super-irritating, but their superhero goodness had won in the end.

Twenty minutes later, all seven of them were tucked up in bed. Pepper walked over to every one of them, tucking in their blankets and giving them a good night kiss. When she came to Natasha, the little girl sat up and gave her a big hug. "Sorry for being annoying," she whispered, and Pepper chuckled.

"_You_ weren't, you were good," she said, being mostly truthful. She gave the little agent a kiss on the forehead and a smile.

Tony grinned up at her and poked her nose when she came to tuck him in. "Ow," she said matter-of-factly.

He reached up and patted her cheek. "Thank you for putting up with us!" he chirped, and she laughed.

"I work for- uh, with _you_, remember? I am so used to it."

He pouted good-naturedly before sitting up and kissing her cheek- purely platonic, of course, seeing as he was about three. She went pink at the sweetness of the gesture, and clumsily patted his head, wondering if being a child brought out the best part of him. The soft, kind part.

Loki appeared to have warmed up a bit since dinner and tolerated her good night kiss with little more than a wrinkled nose. To her surprise, he even mumbled, "G'night," before rolling over in bed.

Pepper stepped back and admired her handiwork before smiling and turning off the light.

Silence...

"WAHHH!"

Cursing silently, she turned the light back on. She hadn't heard them crying since she had come in that morning, and that had been because Clint had tripped Steve, who had skinned his knee.

She looked at her charges now, trying to identify the wailer. Startled, she realised it was none other than Clint himself.

"Clint? You okay, buddy?" She sat on the edge of his bed, trying not to sound too weary.

Clint looked at her, sniffling. "Dark," he whimpered. "So dark... It hurts... Stop it! Stop!" He thrashed around.

With a pang, Pepper figured that the dark must've brought back some awful memory of Clint's from one of his missions.

"It's okay, Clint, you're safe. We're all here. No one's hurting you," she soothed.

Client continued to sniff. "Scared... So dark... It hurts so much... Natasha!" he finished with a wail, banging his tiny fists up and down.

There was a scuffle and Natasha clambered into Clint's bed. She gave him a hug. "S'okay," she said softly.

"Not..." he said miserably.

Pepper looked around desperately for something to distract him. A nightlight, perhaps? But she didn't have one...

Tony sat up suddenly. "Arc!" he exclaimed.

Pepper's eyes widened. She made her way over to him and looked at his pyjama shirt. It probably wouldn't matter if she cut a hole in it, she thought, it wasn't a fancy top, just something from the cupboard. "Clint, would it help if there was a nice blue light?" she asked.

Clint sniffled a bit and managed a watery smile. "Blue good," he said. "Blue like searcher torch, blue like Natasha's laser."

She didn't quite know what he was talking about, but she took out a pair of scissors and cut a neat hole in Tony's pyjamas. She was careful not to hurt him, but he was extremely ticklish and squirmed as he felt the cool edge of the safety scissors brushing close against his skin. He grinned at her cheekily, and she flicked his ear gently, whispering, "Thanks, Tony." She switched off the room light again.

A cool cyan light shone dimly around the room, casting a comforting glow on everything. Pepper noted with some relief that it wasn't bright enough to keep anybody up, having been muffled by the thin summer blanket that Tony had covered himself up with.

Clint sighed contentedly.

"All okay now?" Pepper asked.

"Yes," said Natasha, and Pepper realised she was still tucked up with Clint. Pepper smiled and didn't comment.

"Good night, guys," she said.

Silence...

"Wait!" Thor called. "Story? Please?"

Pepper tried not to groan. "Oh, but _guys_..."

"Please?" Pepper realised with a jolt that it was Loki, who was currently looking at her beseechingly with big eyes.

Pepper's heart melted yet again.

She set her tiredness aside and said, "Alright, _alright_..." She sighed, turned on the light again and pulled up a stool. "Once upon a time, there was a young woman with red hair."

"Like me?" piped up Natasha. "And like you?"

Pepper stifled a grin. "Very much like me. This woman was trying to get a job in a well-paying company so she could afford to pay her rent. She'd had a lot of interviews, but she'd been turned down by everybody."

"Is this story about you?" asked Steve.

Pepper nodded. "It's all true, even the rejection part."

"That's sad," said Clint, trying to stop his eyes from drooping so that he could finish the story.

"Very," Pepper agreed. "I was starting to lose hope when I found a famous company whose boss needed a PA."

"What's a PA?" asked Thor sleepily.

"Personal assistant," Pepper answered. "So I applied, and I was interviewed by the boss. It turns out that he was extraordinarily-"

"Handsome?" offered Tony, smirking.

"Irresponsible," finished Pepper, smirking back. "I knew I could do the job, and I impressed the boss so much that he hired me straight away. And pretty soon, he was relying in me to do absolutely everything for him."

"Not everything I ask," mumbled Tony, and Pepper hit him lightly. "Ouch."

"And then we all lived happily ever after- that is, until my boss decided to go insane and build a super suit, turning himself into a superhero with responsibilities that he never took care of, instead leaving me to take care of them, and then it turned out he was dying at one point and didn't tell me, even though we've been working together for years. Then he became part of a superhero group who defeated aliens and spontaneously turned into tiny children, leaving me (once again!) to save his a- uh, to save the day."

A few of the kids giggled while Tony turned red, both with embarrassment and anger.

"Okay, there's your story, kids! Time for sleep, and this time I mean it. Next person who talks will be force-fed broccoli. Good. Night."

There was a click and the light went out. This time, the silence was lasting.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you all very much for your kind reviews. I'd like to ask that while I am fine with you asking for updates (it's probably good for me, actually), please don't order me or tell me to. It's a bit annoying. I apologise for not updating sooner. I hope you like this!**

* * *

"Miss. Potts, we have some unfortunate- Miss. Potts?" Fury paused at the door, realising that the subject of his address was still sound asleep. He turned to Hill and muttered, "Get an extra bed in here so she doesn't hurt her back sleeping on that lumpy sofa." The agent nodded and left.

Fury approached carefully, wanting to avoid waking the children. "Miss. Potts," he said quietly. He reached out and patted her shoulder.

Pepper sat straight up, blinking. "I'm sorry, sir, we're all out of lox. We do have bagels."

Fury took a step back. "I'm sorry?"

Focusing her gaze on him, Pepper giggled nervously. "Oh! Sorry, Director. I was dreaming that I was working in this deli in New York, it was very odd."

Choosing not to dwell on this, Fury moved on to his main order of business. "Miss. Potts-"

"Pepper!" Pepper insisted. "Honestly, sir, I do believe you have some sort of memory problem."

Was she always this grouchy in the morning? Fury resolved to ask Tony once they got out of this mess. "Pepper, then. We have news."

She raised her eyebrows. "News. Good news or bad news?"

"Neither," he said with a quick tip of his head. "Or both, if you prefer. I believed the two pieces of news balanced each other out if we were talking about news as a whole, but there are two separate pieces of news-"

"Sir," Pepper interjected. "The news." Was he always this rambly in the morning? Pepper resolved to ask Tony once they got out of this mess.

"Right. We have discovered the cause. We will be working towards a solution."

"That's... good news."

"Correct. The bad news is-"

"Oh, dear."

Goodness, she was negative. Obviously she was not a morning person. "The bad news is that Loki _is_ involved, and we can't question him until he trusts us. So you will need to take care of him for a while longer. As well as that, even after we talk to him, we'll need time to work it out. So..."

"I have to watch all the little monsters for a while longer," finished Pepper. "Oh, goody."

"Stay positive, Pepper!" he smiled.

Goodness, he was bouncy. Obviously he was a morning person. "Fine. How long?"

He shrugged. "Could be any time, I'm afraid. Loki is fairly unpredictable."

"Really. I hadn't noticed. It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that he's the God of Mischief, or anything."

Fury winced. "Little snarky there, Pepper."

A small yawn turned their attention to the seven little children.

Pepper smiled drily. "Sorry, sir. I'm on the clock. Have a nice day." She all but shoved him from the room and collapsed on the sofa with a sigh.

"Pepper?" asked Clint sleepily.

"I am going to kill your boss," she replied.

"Why?" wondered Bruce, his voice thick.

She stood up and started getting out some clothes. "He's far too happy."

"Tony, I seriously doubt that Steve bound and gagged himself."

Tony fidgeted. "It wasn't me!"

"I'm gonna count to three. One... Two..."

"ALRIGHT!" Tony squeaked. "Fine!"

Pepper raised her eyebrows. "Yes?"

"Thor did it."

"Tony."

With a small sigh, Tony made his own way to the naughty corner. Pepper was seriously considering simply naming it his territory. Well, his and Clint's.

"Natasha, would you and Bruce untie Steve? We're going to play a game." Pepper clapped her hands. "Alright, guys! Let's gather round, we're having a game!"

Tony peeked over his shoulder. "Me too?"

"No," she said firmly. "You stay. You have four minutes left. Loki, come join in."

Loki looked at her disdainfully for a moment. Thor toddled over to him and tugged his sleeve pitifully, making little begging noises.

Heaving a great sigh, Loki joined Thor in walking back to Pepper, all the while pouting resignedly at his brother. Thor himself was much happier now that his brother wasn't scorning him, and Pepper's heart melted for the fourth time at the blissful look on his face.

Steve patted Pepper's leg to get her attention. "No more tying up?"

Pepper ruffled his hair. "Sorry, squirt. I told Tony not to play cowboys."

"Wasn't playing cowboys! Steve was an alien!" came an indignant voice from the corner.

"Really. And you decided to tie him up?"

"You said no repulsors," grumbled Tony. "And rope doesn't hurt."

Pepper sighed.

Natasha bounced up to her. "What are we doing?"

"We're going to play a few games!" Pepper replied, trying to sound upbeat. "Everybody get into a circle, let's have a get-to-know-you game first." She sat cross-legged on the floor and patted the ground. Natasha sat next to her happily.

Waiting for the team to assemble, Pepper considered each member. Tony she was already used to dealing with. Natasha was her friend anyway, but Pepper was still surprised at how helpful and cooperative the little girl was, considering she was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clint was more sensible as an adult than as a child, although that still didn't say much. Bruce was quiet and easy to deal with, but Pepper always worried about provoking him. Steve was sweet at the best of times, however, there were still obvious hints of the soldier in him which made him a little wild sometimes. Thor was mental, that was for sure, but he didn't really bother her, choosing to wreck the room instead. Loki... Well, she wasn't quite sure what to make of him yet. It seemed that although they were easy enough to deal with separately, they became rather like a time bomb when they came together. No wonder the bad guys didn't like them.

A poke in the shoulder from Natasha brought her back down to earth. She looked to see all seven children sitting in a neat circle and staring at her expectantly. She cleared her throat. "All right, guys, let's just go around the circle! I want you all to say your name, something about yourself, something you like and something you don't like."

"Why do we have to get to know each other?" asked Steve. "We already know each other."

Bruce jabbed him and looked meaningfully at Loki. Steve made a silent "oh" with his mouth.

"Okay! I'll start. My name is Virginia Potts, but most people call me Pepper. I work at Stark Industries. I like to sing, but I don't like to dance. Natasha, your turn!"

Natasha sat up importantly. "Hello!" she began. "I'm Natasha Romanoff, I speak Russian, and I like to fight! Even though violence isn't always the answer," she added hastily, looking at Pepper, who stifled a laugh. "And I don't like to lose." She glared at Clint for a second.

"Very good, Natasha. Bruce, what about you?" Pepper invited.

Bruce fidgeted. "Hi," he said shyly. "I'm Bruce Banner. I'm an expert in gamma radiation," he said slowly, taking care not to mess up the words, before looking a bit confused. "Or, I was..."

Pepper bit her lip. She wasn't sure how much the kids remembered, and she figured it was best not to strain them, considering the strange forces they were dealing with. She definitely didn't want them to explode, or something. "Okay, what about what you like and don't like?" she prodded cheerfully.

Bruce thought for a minute. "I don't like green. But I like science."

"My turn!" piped up Steve. "Hi everyone! I'm Steve Rogers. I'm a super-soldier!" he said proudly, wilting a bit when Tony rolled his eyes.

"Tony!" Pepper scolded.

"Sor-ree," grumbled Tony.

"Go on, Steve," encouraged Pepper.

"I don't like bullies, but I like standing up for people," finished Steve.

"That's good!" Pepper said, smiling when Steve beamed. "Tony?"

"The name's Tony Stark," said Tony casually. "I'm a billionaire and a genius who used to work in weapons, but now I work with clean energy. I don't like paperwork. I love parties."

Pepper was starting to realise that they were all speaking with more advanced vocabularies than the day before. She wondered what that meant. "Clint?"

Clint looked up from the patch of carpet he'd been mutilating. "Yeah?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Your turn, numbskull."

"Natasha," warned Pepper.

Clint grinned embarrassedly. "Sorry. I'm Clint Barton. I'm an archer. I like combat." He paused, thinking. "I don't like torture. It scares me," he admitted quietly, his eyes filling briefly with pain.

Despite her scorn of him only a moment earlier, Natasha scrambled across the circle and gave him a hug. "It's okay, Clint," she said softly, sounding much older than she was.

"Of course it is." Clint managed to smile. "You're here, aren't you?"

Forcing herself not to cry, Pepper settled for a sniff and a wobbly-sounding, "Thor?"

Thor shifted uncomfortably, painfully aware of the emotional scene next to him. "Um, I'm Thor Odinson," he said without much of his usual bravado. "I come from Asgard. I like Midgardians. I don't like disloyalty." He winced a bit as his brother stiffened.

Pepper wondered briefly if they even had tact on Asgard.

"Sorry, brother," Thor mumbled. "I didn't mean you. Not that you were disloyal! Uh..."

"Let's move on, shall we?" Pepper suggested hastily. "Loki?"

Loki appeared to consider for a second. "I'm Loki Odi- Laufeyson," he corrected himself tonelessly. "I have a weird past. I like ruling. I don't like being overshadowed." He glared at Thor.

Awkward silence.

"Okay!" said Pepper, fast running out of chirpiness. "That was fun, right, guys? Let's play something else!"

"Ooh, ooh!" Steve stuck his hand in the air. "I have an idea!"

She was going to regret this. "What's your idea, Steve?"

Steve put his hand down triumphantly. "Hide and seek!"

The group cheered and immediately all of them darted off- even Loki, to Pepper's surprise. She smiled for a moment, before suddenly realising that they had all disappeared. "Oh, dear."


	5. Chapter 5

Pepper tried to calm down, slowing her breaths and closing her eyes. _Relax_, she told herself, _they can't have left the room_. She tried to think logically.

It was more than likely that Clint was with Natasha- or at least, they hid close together. Of she found one, she would probably find the other- two birds with one stone, so to speak. She allowed herself a grin as she remembered his code name.

She was also willing to bet that they weren't somewhere dark, so she could rule out any enclosed or mostly covered spaces. That meant they were probably behind or on top of something. She glanced around the room, and the curtains caught her eye.

She hurried over to the drapes and yanked them aside. She let out an upset puff of air. They weren't there.

She quashed the panic that was threatening to bubble up again and examined the curtains. They seemed to have been dragged down; the stitching was loose and there were unusual crease marks in it. There was also a footprint in the middle.

She looked upwards at the top of the cupboard, which was next to the window. A flash of red hair!

She fetched a chair and clambered on top of it, breathing a sigh of relief as she looked over to the wall. Clint and Natasha sat atop the cupboard, grinning at her.

"Found you! C'mon then, down you come!" Pepper grabbed Natasha and lifted her down, before scooping Clint up as well. "You two, just go sit quietly on the beds."

"Can we read?" asked Natasha.

"Please?" added Clint.

Pepper smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

Natasha and Clint whooped and ran off. Pepper didn't give much thought to the fact that they could now read, instead concentrating on finding the other five.

"Now for the others..." She scanned the room again. She would look for Bruce next, she decided. Bruce tended to avoid tightly contained spaces, so he probably hadn't hidden inside an enclosed area, either. He was a very smart cookie, so chances were his hiding place wouldn't be quite as simple as under the table. Most likely he had crawled into a shadow or somewhere hard to see. Perhaps he'd wedged himself between the sofa and the beds?

Pepper made her way over to the plush chair and peered into the gap between it and Tony's bed. Sure enough, a little figure blinked up at her.

"Out you come, Brucie," she coaxed, and he hopped up.

"Was it that easy?" he asked, sounding slightly crestfallen.

She smiled. "No, it was very clever."

"Yay!" he chirped. "Can I go read, too?"

"Yeah, go," she encouraged, and he ran off.

She wondered where Loki had hidden. Wherever he was, Thor probably wasn't too far away- the older brother had displayed a tendency to stick fairly close to his step-sibling. Thor followed Loki, instead of the other way around, because although he had been shrunk down, Loki still remained fairly hostile to the six heroes. This meant that Pepper had to locate Loki to find Thor, a feat she would find difficult. He was very unpredictable. Not to mention he had the advantage of magic. She decided to leave the brothers until last.

Steve, then. He was a straightforward boy, preferring to rely on direct strategies rather than cunning plans. She had to admit that while he certainly wasn't stupid (he was fairly intelligent), he wasn't exactly known for his brains. He was probably in a simple, typical hiding place. Unfortunately, this wasn't particularly good news, as there were plenty of these all around the room.

She sighed. She had to start somewhere. Walking over to the beds, she got down on her hands and knees and crawled across the line, her head straining sideways to see underneath. Nope, not there. She spared a quick look under the table, but he wasn't there either. He wasn't behind the sofa, or inside a pillow fort, or under the rug. She was starting to get worried when she realised that she hadn't checked the cupboard.

Clinging to this last, desperate hope, she flung open the cupboard door. There, sitting covered in dust amongst the various cloths on the cupboard floor, was Steve.

"Hi!" he greeted her brightly.

She pursed her lips, her eyes twinkling good-naturedly. "Alright, little monster, out."

He clambered out. "Gotcha," he said.

"You certainly did. Go sit quietly with the others."

"Okay," he agreed amiably, and off he went.

And now for Tony. Anybody else would have been nervous, but Pepper knew him better than anybody else in the world. She marched straight over to her underwear drawer and pulled it open. There, curled up comfortably in a pair of long-johns, was Tony. He looked up at her sheepishly. "Surprise?"

"Not at all," she answered drily. "Out."

He climbed out, a singlet tangled in his hair. She lifted it out and dropped it back into the drawer, closing it firmly. At least he looked embarrassed, she thought, as he trotted off to the others.

With a sigh, she realised that she had to look for Thor and Loki, admitting that she couldn't put it off any longer.

Glancing around the room, she also realised that she had utterly no idea where to look.

Perhaps it was time for a different strategy.

"Thor, if you come out now, I'll give you some coffee," she called.

Was that a twitch of the rug? The thing was so bunched up these days that Pepper didn't bother straightening it any more. Clint just kept barreling into it. It would be a good hiding place. She snuck over to the rug and yanked it away. Nope, it had just been a bug.

"Okay, forget the coffee. Pop Tarts?" she offered.

That time, she heard a distinct creak above her. She looked up to see Loki perched on the fan, glaring at the potted plant warningly.

She grinned. "Down you come, Loki."

Loki pouted and jumped off the fan. Pepper tensed, bracing herself to catch him, but he merely floated down, landing with a soft plop on the carpet.

"And Thor, out you come, too," she ordered, and the leaves of the plant ruffled as Thor clambered out. "You two, go read quietly for a bit. I need a coffee break."

Thor tugged at her shoe. "May I indulge in Pop Tarts?"

Pepper grinned. "Yeah, I'll get some and you can share with everyone." She made a cup of coffee and toasted a few Pop Tarts while Thor waited impatiently. "Don't forget to share," she reminded him as he bounded off, Loki trailing behind.

Pepper collapsed onto the sofa with a hearty sigh, her coffee spilling slightly. She closed her eyes.

A knock on the door. Fury walked in, his long coat swinging behind him. "Pepper, we have some bad news."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Fair warning, the plot begins to grow a tiny bit darker from here. Still fluffy, but with some seriousness and edginess. Also, I know it's very short, but if you read one of my polls on deviantART (My username is FairyBubblePuppy) you'll see. I promise I know what I'm doing! In any case, enjoy, and please review!**

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Whatever high spirits Pepper had gained from finding the children evaporated as soon as Fury walked in. It wasn't even because of his announcement. Pepper was beginning to find the man utterly annoying.

"Oh, what now?" she sighed.

"Well... Okay, we have- to a certain extent- isolated the issue," Fury said tentatively. He wouldn't admit it, of course, but the look on her face was, well, a little scary.

Pepper frowned. "Isn't that good news?"

"Let me finish. We know what's wrong, mostly, but we have no chance of fixing it until Loki is willing to cooperate with us."

"So this is basically you telling me to hurry things along." Pepper resisted the urge to stick up her middle finger at him and scream her exasperation for all the world to hear. "You've got a lot of nerve, you know?"

Fury winced. "Our apologies, Pepper. Unfortunately, there is more."

"Oh, goody!" Pepper said, as dry as the Sahara.

"You see, after discovering the issue, we also realised that... How do I put this? Are you familiar with the time travel theory regarding meeting oneself from a different time?"

"You mean the explodey one, yeah?"

"Uh, yes. If one meets an alternate reality of oneself, they will both cease to exist. Unfortunately, a similar scenario is applicable here. You see, these seven people aren't normally this age."

"No, really?" Pepper was getting more and more sarcastic by the second.

"Please, Pepper. As I was saying, these people are usually much older. By de-aging them, Loki has effectively ripped the fabric of time. The issue here is, because it's against the laws of the universe, the children will be suffering potentially fatal side effects. I'm sure you've realised that they've been acting much older than they were when you first came in yesterday."

"Oh. God, has it really only been one day?" Pepper groaned.

Fury smiled apologetically. "I'm afraid so."

Pepper pulled a face, and then stopped and thought about his actual statement. "Well, yeah, I guess they have been acting older. I mean, they use bigger words, and they're- they're reading..." She glanced over at the children, absorbed in their books. They did look taller, and older...

"That's because they're aging. Not normal aging, but... Unnatural aging. Their adult life memories will eventually snap back, and it will be too much for their bodies to take. They will grow very unwell, and they will die." Fury looked at her solemnly as this sank in.

"Wait... What? That- no, that can't be right, I... Fix it!" Pepper snapped, not making much sense.

"We're trying. However, we need Loki's cooperation..." Fury looked at her imploringly.

"Ugh. So, in a nutshell, I need to hurry up and get a toddler Loki to trust a bunch of super secret agents before all six of Earth's Mightiest Heroes as well as an Asgardian super villain explode."

"That's basically it. There is only one more complication."

"Oh, God, what now?" Pepper almost shouted.

"Loki is still a little too young to be able to tell us anything. We need to age him a little further."

"So it's not just hurry up, it's hurry up and also time it?" Pepper buried her face in her hands. "I'm sorry, I can't- I didn't sign up for this. I'm doing you a favour. And I don't like you coming in and- and putting all this pressure on me! I mean, obviously- _obviously_, I don't want them to die!" Her voice was getting shriller and shriller, and Fury was looking more and more alarmed. "But I have no training in this sort of thing! You're the head of a bunch of highly trained agents and _I_ have to do this? I've always been willing to help you however I can, but I just don't think I can do this. I just can't."

"Lies," came a small voice from the corner.

"What?" Pepper turned, still vaguely unhinged.

"That's a lie," came the voice again. Pepper realised that all seven children were watching her. Again, the voice spoke, and Pepper saw that it was Tony. "You can do it."

Pepper laughed bitterly. "Tony, do you even understand what's going on?"

"No," said Tony, without changing his expression. "But I don't have to. In all my years of knowing you, I have never seen anything that you couldn't do."

"Tony's right," Natasha said quietly. "We believe in you."

"If anybody can do it, whatever it is, it's you," Steve added.

"We know you'll succeed." Bruce murmured.

Pepper swallowed. "But what if I don't?" she said in a small voice, momentarily forgetting that she wasn't the child.

"Then we will know that you did everything in your power to succeed," Thor said reassuringly.

"But you will succeed," Clint told her firmly.

"Not a doubt in our minds." Tony's gaze was unwavering.

Pepper choked back a sob, touched. She turned back around to Fury, who was still looking at her somberly.

"Will you do it?" he asked her quietly. A request. Not an order.

Pepper considered her options. She looked at the children. All of them, even Loki (sort of), were looking at her seriously and trustingly. They all caused an awful lot of trouble and pain to her at times, both their adult selves and their child selves. All of them could be annoying and infuriating and sometimes she hated them with all of her heart.

She tried to imagine a world without them, and found that she couldn't.

She looked at them again. Their gazes were beseeching now.

She couldn't let them down.

"Pepper...?" Fury looked uncertain. "Will..."

Pepper looked up at him. "Yes."


	7. Chapter 6 and a half

She started having nightmares.

Every night, the children would wake to her tossing and turning in her bed, tangled in her sheets. They would wake to moaning and pleading and screaming and they didn't know what to do.

When they tried to wake her, she would gasp and her eyes would shoot open. She would thrash around until she saw them gazing at her anxiously and she would inhale and reassure them, her breaths ragged.

Pepper, it seemed, was falling apart.

She feared failure. She always had, even as a small child. She thrived on success, even if it meant wearing herself to the bone.

But the stakes were even higher this time.

If she failed, the children...

She couldn't lose them. She couldn't lose Tony.

She was working harder than ever and they couldn't fail to notice the paleness in her face or the deep bags under her hollow eyes. She didn't care, didn't focus on her own welfare, it all depended on making Loki trust her, and S.H.I.E.L.D.

But progress was slow, and stress was tearing her apart.

Tony took to crawling into the blankets with her and cuddling up to her, almost desperately, as if he was the one requiring comfort, not her. He would pat her hair and wriggle in close to her and she would calm down, still breathing hard, but her taut face would relax and she would wrap her arm protectively around him.

The children grew at an alarming pace. Each night, it seemed they had aged another few months, and after a week, they appeared to be about six or seven.

Pepper knew she had to work fast.

Loki was loosening, relaxing, but he still narrowed his eyes whenever she even mentioned S.H.I.E.L.D. and turned away angrily whenever she suggested hesitantly that he had something to do with this.

She was growing desperate. She began trying to bribe him, giving him cookies and letting him choose the channel on TV. The other children grumbled a little, but they must have retained some sense of sensibility and on the whole they were cooperative.

But although Loki was growing more trusting, it wasn't enough.

It wasn't long before the first child grew ill.

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**A/N: The tone has changed, the style has changed, the plot has changed. It's very different and it's going to get darker. Also, there's a reason it's called 6.5; it's too short to be a full chapter but I wanted to end it here; adding more would have ruined it for me. And I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while ;_;**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: How's that for a fast update? Thanks for all the wonderful feedback you're giving me, it really inspires me to keep going 3 No story lives unless someone wants to listen! (J.K. Rowling) Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Oh, also, I'd like to remind you that since this is a somewhat AU fanfiction, I CAN kill off characters. Just thought I'd remind you of my evilness C:  
**

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His fever... It scared her.

She hasn't known that a person could reach such a high temperature. He was burning, almost literally burning, she couldn't keep her hand on his forehead for long before having to snatch it away again.

He was so ill, too. He tossed and turned in his bed, squirming and moaning, it was like the plague, in fact, it might as well have been for the pain and discomfort it caused him.

Pepper didn't know why he had contracted the illness first (if it even was an illness). Perhaps it was due to his body being weak in the first place. Perhaps it was because he depended on the metal implant in his chest to keep him alive.

She was terrified. Absolutely panic-stricken. She couldn't lose him. Those few months when he had been in captivity... That had been hell. And that was with the desperate hope that he was still alive.

But if she failed this time, if he left her... He wouldn't come back.

And she couldn't deal with that.

Yes, she was scared to death. But she never showed it.

Pepper was never given much credit for bravery. She had an incredible skill, one that let her simply grin and bear it. This skill had been strengthened during Tony's many missions as Iron Man. She'd never let him see how horrified she'd been when he came home, battered and bruised. She just patched him up and tucked him in to bed.

He didn't know how she cried afterwards.

Pepper didn't show the children how worried she was. What was the point in panicking them, she asked herself, in telling them how serious it is? Better to tell them that Tony had a simple case of the flu. But, in a determined effort not to spiral into depression, she convinced herself that this was a golden opportunity. She shot dark hints at Loki whenever she could, trying to let him know that it was imperative that he told them all he knew.

Tony was getting worse every day. His skin grew waxy and yellow and his cheeks lost the rosy plumpness of youth. He became thin and pale and mumbled deliriously under his breath, sweat dripping off of his body and soaking his sheets. The arc appeared too small for his chest now and rattled ominously in its cavity.

Pepper hadn't a clue how to help him. How did one go about curing a snap-back in time and space? The only solution was to keep him comfortable whilst gently urging Loki to open up.

But gentle encouragement wasn't going to help for long.

Pepper was so focused on helping Tony that she didn't notice Natasha was growing unwell, too. It wasn't until she collapsed while playing with Clint that Pepper realised that something was seriously wrong.

She rushed the feebly stirring Natasha to bed while Clint looked on anxiously.

"Is Natasha okay?" he asked her urgently.

Pepper shook her head miserably. "I don't know, Clint, I really don't," she rasped.

Natasha suddenly cried out, "No, no!" She thrashed around violently, eyes tightly shut against horrors that only she could see.

Clint's eyes were wide and worried. "Please make her okay," he pleaded, and Pepper nodded blankly, her throat dry.

Tony stirred from where he lay, mumbling, "Stop, make it stop." Pepper narrowed her eyes, her eyebrows creased. She didn't know any way to protect them from their own minds.

Fury visited regularly to track her progress and check on the children. All Pepper could do was shake her head.

Bruce was the next one to succumb. He started going a little green at dinner one day, and Pepper was momentarily worried that he was going to Hulk out.

Then he threw up and fell, twitching, to the floor.

The other four children gasped and started muttering, alarmed, amongst themselves. Pepper, eyes wide, snapped into action and carried Bruce to bed.

"Brucie? You okay?" she asked gently, mopping his forehead with a moist towel.

Bruce shuddered. "It hurts," he whimpered, his eyes still closed and his face slightly scrunched up. "Make it go away, please make it go away."

They had all three of them been saying things like that, and none of them had been properly awake since they had fallen victim to the sickness. They were delirious, no doubt, and in a lot of pain. Pepper had tried to wake them, shaking them, pressing ice cubes to their skin, shouting... nothing had worked. She daren't try something drastic in the fear that it would harm them more.

Steve, Clint and Thor approached her one evening while she was tending the sick children. They looked nervous, and Clint nudged Steve, who was apparently the spokesperson.

"Pepper," he said quietly. "They don't just have the flu, do they?"

Pepper looked up at them properly. With a start, she realised that they must have been around nine years old. She was so shocked by their rapid growth that she didn't properly take in their question. "What?"

"What's really wrong with them?" Steve pressed.

Pepper swallowed. "I... I don't know what you mean. They're just a little sick, everything's okay..."

"Pepper," Clint interjected. "We aren't stupid. Please tell us what's going on."

"All of it," Steve added.

Pepper bit her lip. "I can't." She had already discussed this with Fury and they had agreed that the less the children knew about the situation, the better.

"Please," Clint said, so quietly she had to strain to hear him, and his eyes darted momentarily towards Natasha.

Pepper couldn't help it. She started to cry.

Steve, Thor and Clint looked at each other, aghast, as tears flowed steadily from Pepper's eyes. A drop landed on Tony's leg, and he mumbled, "Water... No... Stop... Can't breathe..."

Pepper soothed him, still sniffing and wiping away tears. "Shh, shh... It's okay, everything's- Everything's going to be okay."

"Okay," she said to the other three, who still looked uncomfortable. "Sit down. I'll... I'll try and tell you what I know."

And she told them everything.

She told them how she had been called in to hear that Earth's Mightiest Heroes had been turned into toddlers, and that she had to babysit. She told them how Fury suspected that Loki was responsible. She told them how he had told her to look after him and gain his trust. She told him how Fury had told her that if it wasn't fixed soon, the children would die.

Tears still glistened in her eyes as she finished her tale. The three children stared at her, their own eyes wide in disbelief.

"I know it's a lot to take in," she murmured.

Clint spoke up first. "Does that mean that Nat is..." He didn't finish, instead giving the sick girl such an anguished look that Pepper thought her heart was going to break.

"Loki, responsible for this?" Thor mumbled, pain in his eyes. "I... I didn't know..."

"It's okay, Thor," Pepper said quietly.

"No, it's not!" Thor cried, so that Loki turned suspiciously from the corner where he sat, brooding. "It's not okay," he repeated, more quietly. "Don't you see? Loki is many things, but he is not stupid. In performing the spell, Loki would have known the outcome. He would have known that it would inevitably kill us all."

"It's not the first time he's tried," Steve muttered.

Thor looked up at him, his expression tortured. "But he had to turn himself as well," he whispered. "He hates us- me- so much that to destroy us, he would even be willing to sacrifice himself. As long as I was gone." He broke down and sobbed.

Pepper's heart contorted at the suffering of the two children. She couldn't stand it, and yet, she couldn't do anything.

Steve looked up at her, a hard, determined glint in his eye. "Well, we know where we go from here," he declared. "From now on, our number one priority is making Loki trust us."

Thor looked up hopelessly. "What's the point? He'll never forgive us," he said in a flat voice.

Steve grabbed Thor's shoulders and shook him hard. "Have heart," he urged. "There's four of us. Between me, you, Clint and Pepper, we can do anything."

But he spoke too soon. Clint's sadness had weakened him, and he turned to face them. "I'm sorry," he said, "you'll have to do this one without me." He smiled weakly and curled up on the floor.

Steve and Thor stared, horrified, as Pepper scooped Clint up and put him to bed as well, dread spreading through her body.

"O-okay, three of us, then," Steve said worriedly, with an anxious glance at his unwell friends.

Loki turned and glared at them, and even Steve began to doubt success.


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Quick warning: Mild language (references to strong language) and angst.**

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Pepper was used to overworking.

She worked for Tony Stark. Of course she was.

But although her job often involved stress, she had never been under so much pressure. The worst part was that it wasn't just professional pressure this time... It was personal pressure.

The bags under her eyes were now so deep that they were more like caves. They took up an enormous portion of her face, leaving her looking not unlike a panda. She was rather gaunt and unkempt, and her face was hollow.

The children would have been worried... But they weren't awake to know, or care.

The only ones who hadn't succumbed were Thor, Loki and Steve. Steve had the serum going for him, of course, and Thor and Loki weren't even human. But, judging by their behavior, it wouldn't be long until they too lay twitching and moaning.

Thor tripped dazedly towards his brother, murmuring incoherently. Loki appeared almost equally confused, and Pepper's tired mind observed that they seemed almost to be drunk. Steve, too, was doggedly attempting communication with Loki, and had been for several days. He was clearly growing weaker as well, and Pepper marveled at the fact that he hadn't collapsed from exhaustion alone.

They were clearly made of stronger stuff than she had thought- well, no, that wasn't true. She had always known they were tough, resilient. They had to be, of course.

It would have seemed strange to an outsider that Pepper was so tired. There wasn't much for her to do, they would have argued. There was nothing she could do, really, they were beyond treatment, or cure. All she had to do was make them comfortable, and try to stop them from kicking the bucket entirely.

The problem was that it wasn't the amount of work that was eating away at her health, both physical and mental. It was the worry, the stress, the pressure, the sense of panic that threatened to consume her entirely. She couldn't even imagine losing them, and yet, if she failed, that would become the reality.

She was focusing her energy almost entirely on the sick children, barely having enough left over for Loki. She hoped vaguely that Steve and and Thor could manage.

Thor was probably the weakest of the three, she admitted sadly. The knowledge of Loki's unconditional hatred had had a terrible impact on his resolve and well being, and he was deteriorating at a frighteningly rapid pace. She didn't know how long it would be until it was five sick children instead of four.

She resumed her care taking. Stroking Tony's hair, she sang softly to them, trying to keep her voice from dying. She wasn't sure, but they seemed to relax slightly when she sang. Being the overachiever she was, she had been singing practically day and night, and her voice was just about gone. Still she continued.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine... When you're not happy, my skies are grey... You'll never know, dear, how much I love you... Please don't take my sunshine away."

Her voice cracked and she swallowed a sob.

"Please... Please, don't take my sunshine away," she repeated, not singing, but pleading.

Tony's head shifted. "Pep...per..." he croaked.

"I'm here," she whispered. "Tell me that you are, too."

A ghost of a smile appeared on his face.

A cough behind her drew her attention. Thor coughed again, and blood spattered the floor.

Loki's eyes widened.

A second sound distracted Pepper again. She turned and watched in alarm as Steve grabbed at his throat, emitting a frightening choking sound.

"They're dropping like flies," she murmured, terrified. She sprang into action and scooped up a child under each arm, depositing them gently in bed and trying to calm them down.

"Shh, shh," she soothed, rubbing Thor's chest and patting Steve's to clear his airway. Gradually, they relaxed, but almost immediately tensed up again.

"Stop!" roared Thor, his face screwed up.

Steve said nothing, but his eyes widened behind their lids and a look of complete horror took over his face.

Pepper looked at the anguished faces of the six heroes, and her heart tore in two.

She glanced desperately at Loki, who was staring at Thor with something like dismay.

"Please," she croaked. "Please. Tell me what you know. Tell us all." Her voice broke.

He looked at her, his expression unreadable once more.

Tears of anger, disgust and desolation spilled over in her eyes. "How could you do this?" she cried at him. "Your own brother, his friends, how can you sit there and watch them die?"

"I cannot help," he said coldly, and turned away.

Perhaps she was losing her mind.

She didn't know. It felt like it.

Her memory was getting worse- not that she needed it, now.

She felt sick, although that was possibly due to not having eaten in several days.

She spent all day at the sides of the children, zipping from bed to bed, soothing fretful movements and quieting sudden vocalisations. The only thing that occupied her thoughts was that they must get better, and that she must help them. Nothing else was more important.

Surprisingly, Loki helped her. He would fetch things for her, he would assist her in calming the unwell heroes, he would even pat her arm awkwardly when her feelings became too much.

It appeared that the children were getting worse every day. Their cries and thrashing grew feebler and feebler and their breaths were shallow and ragged... Until Pepper could hardly tell if they were breathing at all.

Weaker and weaker, day by day, and Pepper's mental health dropped like a cannonball from the sky. The six were almost completely still by the end of the week, only a faint twitch to show that they were still alive.

Tony worried Pepper. He was the weakest of them all, not a glint in his closed eyes to show for his old bravado. He would have looked calm if not for the heat rolling off him in waves or the sweat that had almost soaked through his mattress. He would have looked peaceful if not for his sunken eyes and yellow complexion, and the bones that were as visible through his skin as the nose on his face.

Pepper spent more and more time by his side, checking his temperature hopelessly and trying desperately to rouse him. Loki pretended not to see the tears that dripped off her nose, and pretended not to hear her pleading with him, sobbing inconsolably.

And then one day, his breathing was so faint that she could barely feel it on her cheek, his fever so high she couldn't bear to touch him, his pulse so weak, so slow, that she wasn't sure it was there at all.

"Please, Loki!" she screamed, her voice shrill with despair. "Please! You have to help me, please..." She broke down and sobbed loudly and unabashedly. She pressed her forehead to Tony's bed, wrapping her arms around him, wracked with pain and fear.

"I cannot help!" Loki said, and he seemed to be fighting to remain calm.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN?" Pepper howled. "WHAT THE-" Loki winced as she swore- "-DO YOU MEAN, YOU CAN'T HELP? You're the only one who can, you- You-" She gulped, trying to get a grip on herself. "You are the one who started the blasted situation, you have to HELP me or they're going to EFFING DIE! You were the one to de-age them, leaving ME to CLEAN UP AFTER S.H.I.E.L.D.'s EFFING MESSES, AS ALWAYS, and I have had it UP TO HERE trying to convince you to trust us..." There were tears in her voice now, tears of anger and frustration. "And I am going to make you help us if it's the last thing I ever do, because GODDAMNIT, I love these kids, I love them so much, and I love Tony so much that if he dies I don't know what I'm going to do with my life." Her breath ran out and she took a long, rattling gulp of air. "So I don't care what I have to do, I don't care if I have to threaten you, bribe you or be your effing slave for the rest of my life, just help the kids. Do it now. Please."

Loki looked greatly conflicted.

"Please! Haven't I shown you how desperate I am?" she begged him, defiance battling with desperation in her eyes.

"I want to help you," Loki said, his voice low. "I do. But I can't. Wait-" He held up his hand before she could continue. "I _can't_. I can't because I don't know how. I didn't do it. I wasn't involved. You've got the wrong man. I cannot help!" he cried, and tears began to pour from his eyes.

Pepper opened her mouth to utter the disbelief that had opened a big chasm in her heart, but she stopped, her eyes wide in shock. Her breath caught, and with a terrifying jolt, she realised that Tony's heart had stopped beating.

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**Second A/N: Please don't kill me. If you kill me, I can't update. Feel free to yell at me in your reviews ;A;**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Lots of the reviews I'm getting are making me feel a bit guilty. However, I do remind you that this is my story; I've known where it was headed for quite a while and I did warn you about the angst. I ask you to read to the end, some loose ends will be tied up. Any questions, feel free to ask me.**

* * *

Blankness.  
The shock had wiped her mind as clean as a slate. She was nothing, she was nowhere, she didn't know what was happening... All she could do was stare blankly at the too-small arc reactor in Tony's silent chest... The arc reactor that had gone out. For it was dull now, about as bright as the sky at night. Its reassuring warm blue glow had died. Just like...  
_No._  
Can't be happening. Can't be happening. No, this was Tony Stark. He couldn't be...  
Pepper dropped to her knees, well-aware that this wouldn't help Tony, but what else could she do?  
"No, no, you did not just leave me," she muttered, her voice unrecognisable as it broke. "You bastard. You selfish bastard. You didn't leave. How could you leave... No, you didn't, you can't have..."  
Loki was gone, she didn't know where he'd run off to, but what did it matter? He couldn't help. That- that- she couldn't think of a word to describe him. All this time, and he hadn't been responsible for the thing at all. Why hadn't he thought to tell her?  
She wasn't quite sure what she was feeling. There was no logic left in her normally sensible brain. There were no emotions left in her normally full heart. There was nothing but the shock, the disbelief, the feeling that she'd been disconnected from her body.  
She knew she should cry, but the tears wouldn't come. It was like her body was refusing to accept the impossible: that Tony was gone.  
She lifted his limp, tiny frame and cradled him softly in her arms, sinking to the ground. He looked so innocent, so peaceful, that for a moment, she swore he was only sleeping...  
The door burst open and she registered vaguely that Fury was storming in. A small shape toddled behind him- Loki? Her hazy vision wasn't helping her blank mind to process anything.  
She became aware of Maria tugging on her arm, murmuring for her to get up. She shook her head, although she didn't quite remember telling herself to do it. She kept shaking her head, muttering, "no, no." Fury tried to wrestle Tony from her grip and she cried out, shrieking and screeching like an animal.  
_I've gone mad, haven't I?_ she wondered groggily.  
She crumpled to the floor, sobbing helplessly. Fury scooped up Tony and ran out the door, perhaps to the hospital? Who knew, or cared, Pepper was past caring, there was just no _point_, all it did was tear you apart.  
She allowed Maria to pull her up, patting her hair. Step by step, Maria pushed her to walk shakily and dazedly out the door.  
There was still nothing in her mind. It scared her a little, but she couldn't think about it. She couldn't think about anything. Pepper fretted idly that the numbness would never pass.  
She felt herself being pushed down onto a bed, a soft one, and there was a sharp pain in her arm as someone injected something into her. Her vision went fuzzy and started to go dark.  
"Wait," she rasped. "The other children..."  
"We'll take care of them," came a soft voice. "Rest."  
Her almost-dying mind projected an image above her head. An image of Tony, alive and well, laughing, happy...  
"Tony..." she croaked, reaching her hand up to touch his face.  
Her arm thudded back down next to her as her body lost its battle with the sedative. Everything swirled and swayed around her, and she fell into unconsciousness.

Pepper came to with a throb in her head. Her eyes fluttered open and she groaned, squinting against the light. There were six figures standing over her...  
"How you doin', Pep?" asked Clint, grinning.  
Tony said nothing, but extended his hand to stroke her cheek, an unusually tender look in his eyes.  
"You guys... You're alright," Pepper gasped. "You're alive... You aren't sick... You're... You're _grown up_!"  
Natasha smiled. "You did a great job with us."  
"I'm so glad you're okay," Pepper breathed, and tried to sit up.  
Gentle hands pushed her back down. "Calm down, Pepper," said a voice that came out of Steve's mouth, but it didn't sound like Steve.  
"Try to relax," said Thor's mouth, but the voice was female.  
Pepper's eyes widened.  
The Avengers faded away, replaced by a couple of doctors smiling reassuringly at her.  
"What..." Pepper's voice faltered. "Where are they?"  
"Where are who?" asked the woman.  
"Tony... And Natasha? Steve, Clint, Bruce, Thor, where are they? They were here, they..." She trailed off.  
"Honey, I'm afraid they weren't here," said the man apologetically. "You must have imagined it."  
"How are they? How's Tony? Is he... Is he..."  
"Shh, shh," soothed the woman. "The others are fine, they're in stable conditions. Tony... Well." She looked uncertainly at her companion.  
"We're sorry, Miss. Potts," the man said gently. "We aren't sure how he is."  
"Check," Pepper pleaded. "Please."  
"No, it's not that... They aren't sure," the woman amended. "He's not dead, don't worry. Loki got to us quickly enough, they've sort of saved him."  
Pepper frowned. "Sort of? What..." Another thought occurred to her. "Loki? What's he said? Can he help? What do you mean, he told you? He helped us? Quickly? But it was ages before Fury came! What-"  
The man held up his hand. "Calm down," he said for the second time. "Yes, Loki helped us. It wasn't ages, in fact, he came as soon as he realised what had happened. I suppose the shock made it seem like ages."  
"He's been talking to Fury," the woman said. "Beyond that...We don't know."  
Pepper struggled to sit up, and they pushed her down again.  
"Please, let me see him. Let me see them all," she begged.  
The man laughed. "I would have thought you'd have had enough of them." He stopped laughing when he saw her stony face.  
"We can't let you out, Miss. Potts," the woman told her apologetically. "But we will inform you of any news that we hear."  
Pepper tried to settle down. "Thank you," she said quietly, and lay back in silence.  
The man and the woman exchanged glances. "Press this button if you need us," said the woman, and the two of them left her alone.

A loud noise shocked Pepper out of her reverie, and she sat bolt upright as Loki came tearing into the room.  
"Pepper, Pepper!" he was shouting excitedly as several agents crashed after him.  
"Loki?" she whispered as he launched himself happily into her arms.  
Shocked, she wrapped her arms around him absently, trying to process the strange turn of the events as the agents huffed and puffed and tried half-heartedly to protest against the wild show of affection because Pepper still wasn't well.  
She waved them off. She was fine.  
"Loki, what's the matter?"  
"Nothing, Pepper, nothing, that's the great thing, they have a fix! And I helped! When you were looking after the Avengers, I was trying to think! And then what I thought of mixed with what Mr. Fury and the others researched turned out to be right and now they're going to be okay and I'll be okay and then you won't be sad anymore!" Loki's spirited explanation blurred together in his utter delight.  
Pepper gasped. "They- they're going to be okay?"  
"Yes!"  
"And Tony?"  
"Yes! He's going to be okay! Well, he's still not very well, but you can fix him, right?" Loki gazed up at her with big, trusting eyes.  
"I- I- yes, I hope so," she murmured.  
"I know you will," he said confidently. "You can do _anything_."  
Tears ran down her cheeks as her joy overflowed and streamed from her eyes. She hugged him close and kissed the top of his head.  
Loki squeaked as she squeezed him tightly. "Pepper, you're squishing me," he complained.  
"You wonderful little gremlin," she mumbled. "This whole time, I thought it was your fault, I thought you were doing nothing, and you've saved them all... I'm so sorry for yelling at you. Thank you. Thank you, Loki, thank you..."  
He patted her on the back. "Come on, Pepper, they need to administer the antidote and you need to be there."  
She lifted him up and together they made their way back to the room where the whole thing had begun.  
Upon opening the door, she laughed. The five children were lined up on the couch, still sound asleep, but so much calmer.  
"There was a pre-antidote that they were given to make them feel better, a painkiller," said Fury from behind her.  
Pepper turned and gasped as she saw Tony in his arms. Still pale, still ill, but peaceful and _alive_.  
"And that's all I could hope for," she whispered.  
She scooped him up too and walked to the couch, placing Loki and Tony gently onto it. "Where's the antidote?"  
Fury pointed at a huge lamp.  
Pepper frowned. "What?"  
"That's how it's administered. It's a radiation. You can stay, it's harmless to anyone who hasn't been affected, but it will help them."  
"What about the arc? When Tony grows up again it'll be too small."  
"The radiation recreates the blast that caused the de-aging. All their changed objects- the arc, Mjolnir, the shield... They'll be back to normal." Fury smiled.  
Pepper grinned back, and then she laughed, laughed with relief.  
"Alright, Pepper," Fury said. "We're going to set it off now."  
She nodded, suddenly nervous. "This is guaranteed to work, right?"  
Fury hesitated.  
Dread crept through her like tentacles.  
"Well, it should," he said carefully. "Seventy percent chance of success."  
She gulped. "Well, it's this or nothing. Okay. Let her rip."  
She sat onto the couch and held Tony close as Fury left the room and the lamp began to glow.  
"Wait," she said. "I don't know if you can hear me. All of you. But I want you to know... It was a pleasure taking care of you. Godspeed, Avengers, I... I love you all." She sat back as the overwhelming exhaustion from her spinning emotions took over, and as the room glowed white, the world faded to black.

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**A/N: I won't be updating for a while, sorry to leave you on another sort-of cliffhanger! Please, please, please review!**


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N: My apologies for not updating sooner! I did post a joke chapter earlier, but I didn't put it on ffnet- only deviantART. If you want to check it out then here is the link: fav . me/d5v6or4 with no spaces. Warning, though, it is incredibly random. A lot of work went into this chapter- I hope you enjoy it!**

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There was something fading in and out of focus, but it wasn't the room. Not unless the room was filled with countless glittering stars.

There was another thing, too. A huge face. Who was it? It was rather difficult to tell with such a foggy brain and such flickery vision. But it did resemble someone…

"Fools," said Loki's head, if that was indeed who it was. "It's too easy! It's far too easy to deceive you. You've rather disappointed me, you know."

Pepper blinked desperately. "What?" she mumbled, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it and squinting hard.

Loki laughed, but it sounded off, somehow.

"You're all so simple. So vacant. Oh, this has been fun. But the party's over, my friends, and we must return to work. I have so much more to do… So much worse to do. So long. Perhaps we shall meet again." Loki's face disappeared, and so did everything else.

Pepper's eyes blinked open for real.

She was sat on a couch. A bit anticlimactic after everything she'd been through, she thought. It was just a couch.

She stretched, and her fist collided with something warm, soft and a little scratchy.

The something grunted.

Pepper froze. Slowly, not even daring to breathe, she looked up to see Tony's stubbled face smiling down at her own.

"Morning," he said.

Pepper shrieked and tumbled off the couch.

From her new vantage point on the soft carpet, it was easier to take stock of the situation.

Six people were asleep on the couch… And one Tony was wide awake and smirking at her.

"You punched me," he mock-whined, putting on a puppy-dog face. "That's not very nice."

"You're an adult!"

"Well, yes, I think it's about time you realised that," he chuckled. "Oh, Tony, you're such a child," he mimicked her. "Act your age, Tony! Tony, stop being so immature!"

"Are you okay?" Pepper frantically scrambled to her feet and pulled up his shirt.

Tony whistled. "How forward, Miss. Potts."

She frowned at him and looked closely at the arc reactor. It was at normal size and glowing, glowing the same friendly blue that she'd become accustomed to. His heart was beating steadily. No sign of a fever. In fact, he looked… Healthy.

Her eyes widened. This… This was nothing short of…

"A miracle," she whispered.

Tony grew serious. "It's not a miracle," he said softly.

"'Course it is," she replied immediately. "Even you can't call it a tragedy."

"No. It's not a miracle because you were the one who made it happen, Pep." Tony looked at her, his eyes fixed.

Pepper looked down. "Stop it," she said, trying to sound stern and nonchalant.

"No." The corner of Tony's mouth twitched into his usual confident smile. "It's true."

"You've always overestimated me." She smiled awkwardly.

"I've been underestimating you," he corrected. "You've been so brave."

She snorted. "Brave? C'mon. You're a superhero. I'm just your personal assistant. The bravest thing I do is try and balance your hot coffee when you're busy exploding things."

"What about when you tried to distract the Hulk? That was the bravest and most foolish thing I've ever seen."

"Oh, that was the most stupid thing you've ever seen. Wow. You really need to sort out your priorities. Tell me, how many times have you been on the news in the past two months?"

"Pepper." Tony's gaze hadn't wavered. "I'm being serious. I know it's not easy to look out for us. I must have be even harder when we were kids, and harder again when we were sick. Fury did something right- he called you. You were the only one who would do it. And I- I'm so proud of you." He pulled her to him and hugged her tightly.

Pepper's lip trembled. "I love you," she whispered.

He pushed her away and looked at her carefully before pressing his lips firmly on hers. "I love you, too," he mumbled.

Next to them, Natasha stirred. "Mmf," she mumbled, and then sat bolt upright. "Clint?" she rasped, her voice slightly hysterical, just as it had been on all the missions they'd ever shared.

She turned wildly, and relaxed slightly when she saw him twitching on the couch beside her. She shook him violently.

"Argh! No, don't put the orange on the chicken! What? Natasha? What?" Clint babbled wildly for a moment before his eyes focused.

Natasha sighed with relief and settled back against the back of the couch.

"Nat? You okay?" He sounded calm and collected, just like he always did in a pressured situation.

She nodded, swallowing. "You?"

He smirked. "When am I not?"

"When I have to save your ass in basically every mission?" she replied drily.

"Ah, it's not every mission." He grinned easily as Natasha rolled her eyes. His own eyes grew a bit more sombre, and he asked quietly, "Really, though. Are you okay?"

"Sure," she mumbled. "I mean, why would being turned into a toddler make me anything but okay?"

"Natasha."

"Sorry." She sighed and relaxed against Clint, who put his arm around her. "I dunno. I am okay, really, but… A little different, maybe."

"Yeah. Me too." He looked uncomfortable. "It's weird."

She nodded, and an awkward silence followed.

Not unexpectedly, Clint tried to break the silence. He cleared his throat, but before he could say anything, Natasha leaned over and kissed him softly.

She pulled away, and Clint blinked several times, apparently needing to clear his head.

"Love is for children," she said quietly, echoing what she'd said to Loki all that time ago. "Maybe this is what we needed to help me see that we're just children grown up."

Clint blinked a couple more times, and smiled. A small, tentative smile. And suddenly, they were just children again. Innocent and naive. And for the first time in their lives, they were okay with it.

Thor and Loki eyed the two couples uneasily.

"Don't get any ideas, brother," Loki joked, with an undertone of warning.

"Loki, you're disgusting," groaned Thor, shoving him.

Loki laughed.

Getting serious again, Thor asked, "Why would you do this?"

Loki scowled. "I didn't."

Thor blinked.

"Ask Pepper," Loki suggested.

"Ask Pepper what?" Steve wondered, groaning as he shook his numb arm.

Bruce didn't say anything, glancing uneasily over at the other side of the couch and looking just as uncomfortable as the other three.

"It is… a long story," answered Loki, a little cranky. "But it's not always my fault."

Pepper looked away from Tony for a moment, and at Loki. Her eyebrows were creased. She opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment, the door burst open and Fury hurried in.

He relaxed as he saw the eight exhausted but seemingly healthy adults on the couch. "It worked," he sighed. "Thank goodness for that."

Tony stood suddenly, and offered his hand to Pepper. "Well," he said. "I don't know about you lot, but I'm going home."

"Me too," said Steve immediately. "I, uh, need to rethink my entire life." He threw a sideways glance at Clint and Natasha, who were discreetly holding hands.

The others murmured assent and stood, not entirely sure what to say to each other after the massive ordeal.

"Wait!" Fury protested. "We need to run tests, make sure it's really safe-"

"Oh, sod it, Fury," yawned Bruce, and the others stared at him. "What?" he asked, somewhat self-consciously. "I'm too tired to care about even science right now."

Fury looked on helplessly as the eight of them straggled outside in a ragged line. "I'll be in touch," he called after them.

"No doubt," muttered Pepper, and they headed home.

**SEVERAL WEEKS LATER**

"Miss. Potts."

Pepper shot to her feet. "What'sthematterisTonyalright? Why isn't he home yet? Has somebody called?"

"Miss. Potts, Director Fury is on the phone."

Pepper gulped.

"I'm sure everything is fine," soothed JARVIS.

Pepper swallowed. "Yes, uhm... Answer the call. Hello, Director Fury," she added as JARVIS put her on the line. "Is everything alright?"

"Miss. Potts," Fury acknowledged. "I'm afraid we're going to need you to come in."

Just then, Tony walked in. "Hi Pepper," he said. "What's up?"

Pepper glanced at him, and smiled.

"Sorry, Nick," she said. "But I'm off the clock." And she hung up with a grin to the sweet sound of anxious protest from Director Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. himself.

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**A/N: It's over! How sad it feels to finally have made my last update on this long running and beloved story of mine :') Thank you all so much for your support and lovely words, I couldn't have asked for a greater response and I certainly couldn't have expected a readership of this magnitude.**

**I do feel that I need to clear this up: I won't tell you who did it. :) Either it was Loki, or it was another villain- one who you'll never have heard of because if it wasn't Loki then it'll be a villain I've made up. But I won't tell you which, so you decide.**

**Perhaps I'll write a sequel one day, but that's not very likely.**

**Anyway, thank you all again, I love you all. Don't unfollow the story in case I decide to upload more antics (antics which happened but weren't recorded in the actual story)- unless of course you don't want to hear about them :) I'm not sure if I will, though, so we'll see. My deviantART account is fairybubblepuppy. deviantart .com (no spaces) and I do upload a great deal more stuff there, and of course feel free to follow me here on if you want to see more from me.**

**That's all! Please, please, please review and tell me what you think of this chapter, which has been a long time coming. All the best to you all, love and cupcakes for everyone!**

**~Aquamarine379**


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